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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports volleyball

IU loses to Purdue after failed comeback attempt

IU was up 23-21 in the fourth set, trying to force a fifth set against the No. 14 team in the country.

Then everything unraveled.

Sophomore setter Megan Tallman couldn’t get to a ball in time, and it dropped to the ground, giving Purdue an easy point.

Purdue (16-2, 6-0) won the next four points and thwarted the Hoosiers’ (12-6, 3-3) attempt at an upset in front of a near-capacity University Gym on Saturday night.

IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said she wasn’t pleased with her team’s effort on that dropped ball.

“The ability to communicate and the ability to work together kind of got lost,” she said. “That’s not about skill. That’s not about technique. That’s about a relationship and working together.”

Purdue won the first set of the game, and IU won the second set.

After a 10-minute intermission, the Boilermakers came out on fire against IU. Purdue won the third ?set 25-8.

Purdue had 11 kills and just one hitting error in the third set, compared to only five kills and 13 hitting errors for IU.

When asked for an explanation of what happened to her team in that set, Tallman didn’t have one.

“To be honest, I’m not completely sure,” she said. “After winning that second set, I wouldn’t say we were complacent, but we didn’t have that drive right away.”

Even after losing the third set by a large margin, IU was neck-and-neck with Purdue in the fourth set, which saw 10 ties and five lead changes.

Dunbar-Kruzan thought the particular play when nobody helped out Tallman really hurt her team.

If IU had gotten that point, she was sure the match was going five sets.

“We need one point to make it 24-21,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “If it’s 24-21, then we’re going to five sets.”

The crowd of 1,687 saw not only a volleyball game, but an honoring of tradition.

This season marks the 40th year IU volleyball has been in existence, with the main celebration happening Saturday night.

During the intermission, alumni from throughout the 40-year history were honored on the court.

Earlier in the day, IU had a banquet with the former members of the team. Some players hadn’t seen each other in 30 years, Dunbar-Kruzan said.

“This was a cool banquet, and I don’t like banquets,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “It was a great day for our sport, to celebrate the tradition and heritage of those people who have walked before us, in our shoes.”

The pair of games next week aren’t any easier for the Hoosiers.

Ohio State, who has already beaten No. 8 Nebraska, No. 15 Illinois and No. 24 Northwestern this season, comes to University Gym on Friday night.

The next day, the reigning national champion and No. 5 team in the country, Penn State, comes to Bloomington.

Dunbar-Kruzan said she hopes to see the crowd that was at University Gym on Saturday night.

“If you want to see high-level sport, you watch Big Ten volleyball,” she said.

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